The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there have been two main ways of delivering correspondence; senders could be necessitated to get their mail to a Receiving House, or would await the Bellman. The latter would patrol the streets, collecting post from your community. In order to distinguish himself, and to make his presence known, the Bellman has on a uniform and sound familiar.
It was in 1852 the suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, which has a trial proposed for the Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were placed on Jersey to try out the modern system.
The success of the experiment resulted in yet another four being attached to Guernsey, one of which now forms part from the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing around the mainland at the time of 1853.
However, there was as yet no universal pillar box design with which we're currently familiar. Design and manufacture was in the discretion of local authorities, plus it was at 1859 that attempts were created to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits had become the favoured option over vertical ones, and had become the norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the initial included the addition from the protruding cap to shield the contents in the elements.
As of 1859, the therapy lamp was to be available in 2 sizes; a bigger and wider size for highly populated areas, along with a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the standardised pillar boxes didn't receive universal acclaim. It was contrary to the backdrop for these criticism the Liverpool Special was formulated.
This prompted the Post Office (opened in 1861) to create another standard letter box in 1866. Again, it was not really a huge success and so, a further design came in 1879. This final design is the one in which were acquainted with today. It was two years ahead of this the iconic red colour of the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before on this occasion, the preferred colour option was green in order to blend in while using green British pastures. However, after having a barrage of complaints how the structures were to hard to locate this can camouflage, it absolutely was agreed that bright red was the best choice. The programme of re-painting lasted here for about 10 years.
For people in particular, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the capacity for sending and receiving mail with ease. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, everyone was afforded access to some delivery service no time before witnessed in Great Britain.